Thanks for the information and insight.Although it may seem to not pretty enough, and not smart enough, it still has several advantages. It is comfortable and safe, and economical. This is an article I wrote about Volkswagen's current state in China.http://daxueconsulting.com/volkswagen-in-china/
Hope we can exchange ideas.

I didn't realize the VW even had a partnership with Suzuki. I think one of the reason that Suzuki is wanting VW even more now is because of the damage to their facilites in Japan. I hope that VW and Suzuki are able to work out these issue because I believe that partnership would benefit them both significantly.

If VW wants to crack the worldwide market considerably, it needs to learn from its partners and not just own them. Although VW sells well in Asian countries, they could really benefit from companies like Subaru and Suzuki by learning about how to sell smaller and cheaper cars. As far as the American market goes, VW will need to put up American plants at low cost to sell to Americans. They also need good gas mileage, witch could come from their clean diesel technology. More learning and more plants worldwide means more cash for VW.

German cars are by far the most fun to drive on the road today. However you pay for that with maintenance and reliability. Japanese cars are far more reliable than German. For example, a Toytoa will last longer than a Volkswagen. Even with this though, Volkswagen is becoming one of the main players in the global automotive field, and I do believe with a couple more pick ups of other small car companies, can become the largest producing and largest revenue car company in the world.

I own a 2004 TDI Volkswagon Jetta that has over 165,000 miles. The car allows me to have 42 mpg on the road. I am not complaining at all about this car. Yes it has been in the shop a couple of times but only for minor things. I have never owned a Suzuki nor driven one but I have heard very good responses from the performance of the car. I believe VW is in the wrong and needs to find a solution to solve the chaos between the two. Hopefully VW and Suzuki will follow through on their obligations to each other to make a cheap high performance car which the world needs.

I notice a few comments below stating German cars have good performance but are not reliable. I am curious to know if this is based on any factual data or based more on sentiments? I have owned 2 German cars (VW Jetta & BMW 525) and have never had a single issue with either. While the BMW is only 6 months old, I have had the Jetta for almost 3 years now, with zero breakdown as far as I can remember. And these cars are driven by multiple members in the family and I am sure the younger ones have their fun with it, but the car has never given a single complaint. To be fair, my experience with Suzuki has also been fairly good, but those cars were not comparable in performance with the VW or BMW. I have had two major breakdowns in Toyota Landcruiser though Toyota continues to maintain that it is a pure coincident that something like this happens (that however did not stop them from sticking me with a ridiculous bill for a car which is hardly two years old).

Volkswagen producers can really use some help from Suzuki producers. By far, the VW industry is one of the worst and i say this from experience. Owning a Jetta, i was constantly having problems with every aspect of the car, wether it was the windows, the transmission, or the engine. So in my opinion, VW owners should really shut their mouth and take some good advise from Mr. Suzuki.

The Japanese are the kings of making things efficient, cheap, and reliable. This merger seemed like it had endless potential in further developing each company in new and growing markets. However, with an unstable and precise merger you can clearly see how quickly things can go bad. VW got a sneak peek of how Suzuki operates and they ran off to establish a market share in Brazil. The world economy is a blood bath.

east is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet
The Japanese and the Western management techniques are different. Even the development of technologies and manufacturing processes represent their mindset. Both are very good. How much I wish that Volkswagen and Suzuki prove the old adage archaic. It is about time

I think it is very interesting that while these two companies decided to become in a partnership they each can teach each other different strategies to make them become more successful together. VW is making an effort to expand their company to make it more well known, which in the long run will help them to then branch out.

VW doesn't need Suzuki to help its company profit. They already have a much more reliable car series and much better technology, all they need to do is hire a designer to make a small profitable car for the Indian market. If they do that, VW needs to camly break the deal off with Suzuki because it would be a waste of money and time to blow up this deal and make a big argument about it. VW is clearly the better company so they just need to leave Suzuki behind.

This is unfortunate for Suzuki that VW will not even consider the company's parts for the German cars. Japanese parts with a blend of German parts and the brand will create a perfect combination of reliability and performance; something that everyone can enjoy. VW is on a good start, but the company should start using its available resources to improve its sales.

For a long time it seemed as if Suzuki was a bit of a joke as far as the Japanese car market is concerned here in America. Between Toyota, Honda and Nissan duking it out at the top, Suzuki and Kia used to rest at the bottom pushing their cheaper, less reliable, not as fancy looking cars. Now that Suzuki (and Kia for that matter) have hit a huge market (young adults!) and stepped up in safety and reliability, it seemed to make sense that they pair up with Volkswagon to have better engines available in their basic vehicles. Volkswagon wanted to make more money, which isn't a surprise. Mergers happen often, but not always at such an extreme (example is Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe that share a platform, but Pontiac discontinued in '09), so its kind of a surprise it didn't work out. It would have seemed that both companies would have benefited from a successful merger. On the other hand, the Porche buying out from VW falling apart does not surprise me. Porche is a well known sports car company with expensive models and an unimpressive reliability. Still, I doubt they would go down without a fight, especially to a company they just recently tried to take over themselves. To see how that plays out will be interesting. Overall, there has been an increase of VW cars that I've noticed, and I think the numbers will rise, with or without any help from Suzuki. To see how VW turns Porche around will be interesting to watch as well.

From the fact that my friends mostly drive VW SUVs, the VW carmaking can be stylish, fuel efficient, and recommended. They have TSI and TDI engines, which are pretty developed technologis. However, world domination on car-making can still be a long way to go, because region differences and preferences are still a big factor in vehicle selecting for the customers.

Certainly seems as if the "people's car" will soon be the international "people's car". With already huge stakes in Brazil, whose up-and-coming economy is sure to buy up the expanded production of them. Sales in the US may go up with new production facilities, but Japanese companies like Nissan, Honda, Toyota, even Subaru have had factories/plants in the US for years and share many categories with VW, so that may be a hard market to overtake. The partnership with the Japanese probably should be re-tooled and saved because most European cars are built so much more expensively than Japanese, and if VW wants to conquer the world market, they are going to need to be able to mass produce more cheaply and efficiently. On the flip side, I understand the thought process of trying to buy Porsche, but that really is only the name. The cheapest new Porsche's are around $55,000-$60,000, not exactly making it feasible for more than a small percentage to purchase. It also won't help making a cheaper, more efficiently and dependably built vehicle, as both VW and Porsche (along with the German based Audi and BMW) have not had the most storied histories in terms of long term dependability, especially when compared to Japanese automakers.

It sounds like VW's plan to take over the car industry is already in the works. Joint ventures, mergers, all the other forms of diversification are allowing them to reach new markets. The tech-savvy Suzuki crew matched with forward-thinking of VW's crew would have made a great team. Germany is a powerhouse and does have money now, but after bailing out some of Europe's banks and countries, will they still have money? Or will they need it even more, and go after this plan with eager and determination? Overall, if all the carmakers did compare and contrast information, we could have better cars as a result. However, then do we have to fear a global monopoly on cars?

VW needs to do whatever it possibly can in order to get these deals done. If it can completely partner with Suzuki and then buy out Porsche, then that would give them a very solid footing in the quest for global domination.

The acquisition of Porsche would help tremendously in the boosting sales in Europe, but more importantly the partnering with Suzuki would get them into the playing field in Japan. With companies like Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Subaru, Japan dominates the automobile market. If VW wants to take over the automotive world, Japan is the place to start, and Suzuki should give them that start.

This is an example where sometimes deals can look good beforehand, but in actuality cause more problems than they solve. In this case, Suzuki wanted better engines and engine technology, while VW wanted a model for more efficient and profitable cars. When the deal went through, it turned out that they couldn't get what they wanted through the deal, and their opinions of it changed. While this does happen often, it is important to realize that sometimes deals like these can be greatly beneficial for both parties and create a big advantage. It is because of this that the risk of a bad deal can be worth it, while it will not always pay off.